The media's double standard for rioters

I have noticed a strange difference in how the media (including the FOX propaganda channel) cover similar events — and no, I'm not talking about the budget nonsense or any other Washington stupidity.

I mean the way you refer to the young people taking to the streets in Arab countries like Syria and Tunisia as "rebels" engaged in a "revolution," while young people in England doing exactly the same things are called "criminals" engaged in "riots."

Methinks your double standard is showing.

The young people in England are frustrated with the same thing as young people in the Arab world: lack of opportunity and governments that do not represent the wishes of their constituents.

In fact, every government in the world today, especially those in financial difficulty, seems more concerned with insulating the ultra rich from any ill effects of the recent financial collapse, while simultaneously balancing their budgets on the backs of young and the working class.

I was shocked to listen to British members of Parliament lay the blame for everything on the rioters, as if these young people were the ones responsible for the collapse of the world economy.

I certainly have sympathy for the innocent Brits caught in the middle of this mess, and it pains me to see their houses in flames. But I feel no less pity for the innocent shopkeepers in Tunisia who have been overrun again and again, first by the government, then by the rebels, plus the occasional bombing byNATO.

It's terrible that anyone should have to live through that, but it's even more terrible that governments should decide, when times got tough, to throw their most vulnerable citizens under the bus so the wealthiest citizens don't have to feel the effects of the economic catastrophe they themselves caused.

I was truly surprised by the double standard your newspaper has shown between the Arab and British young people, even though their message is exactly the same: Enough is enough. Are you just laying the groundwork for when the same thing starts happening here?